ChajJter 10 iHodern ConscioltJness
,ply by the
lief in the
evolutions
hristianity,
rhan value
,lutian into
a revolt of
t1d directed
)Spel of the
Sigmund Freud
A NOTE ON THE UNCONSCIOUS IN
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CIVILIZATION
AND ITS DISCONTENTS
Readings from two works of Freud are included: A Note on the Unconscious
in Psychoant:tlysis (1912) and Civilization and Its Discontents (1.930). Freud's scientific investigation of psychic development led him to conclude that powerful
mental processes hidden from consciousness govern human behavior more than
reason does. His explorat.ion of the unconscious produced a new image of the
human being that has had a profound impact on twentieth-century thought and
beyond. In the following excerpt from A Note on the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis, Freud defined the term unconscious.
A NOTE ON THE UNCONSCIOUS
IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
139),
dei's.
able
: that
.inful
them
1 and
~toms
hood
us by
called
i talk
;cond
i,
said
265
1 wish to expound in a few words and as plainly
as possible what the term "unconscious" has
come to mean in psychoanalysis and in psychoanalysis alone ..
. The well-known experiment,. . of the
"post-hypnotic suggestion" teaches us to insist
upon the importance of the distinction between
conscioUJ and ttnconsciouJ and seems to increase its
value.
In this experiment, as performed by Bernheim, 1
a person is put into a hypnotic state and is subsequently aroused. While he was in the hypnotic
state, under the influence of the physician, he
was ordered to execute a certain action at a certain fixed moment after his awakening, say half
an hour later. He awakes, and seems fully conscious and in his ordinary condition; he has no
recollection of his hypnotic state, and yet at the
prearranged moment there rushes into his mind
the impulse to do such and sllch a thing, and he
does it consciously, though not knowing why.
It seems impossible to give any other description
of the phenomenon than to say that the order has
been present in the mind of the person in a condition oflatency, Of had been present unconsciously,
lHippolyte Bernheim (1840-1919), a French physician,
used hypnosis in the treatment of his patients and published
a successful book on the subject.
until the given moment came, and then had
become conscious. But not the whole of it emerged
into consciousness: only the conception of the act
to be executed. All the other ideas associated with
this conception-the order, the influence of the
physician, the recollection of the hypnotic state,
remained unconscious even then .
The mind of the hysterical patient is full of
active yet unconscious ideas; all her symptoms
proceed from such ideas. It is in fact the most
striking characrer of the hysterical mind to be
ruled by them. If the hysterical woman vomits,
she may do so from the idea of being pregnant.
She has, however, no knowledge of this idea, although it can easily be detected in her mind, and
made conscious to her, by one of the technical
procedures of psychoanalysis. If she is executing
the jerks and movements constituting her "fit,"
she does not'even consciously represent to herself
the intended actions, and she may perceive those
actions with the detached feelings of an onlooker.
Nevertheless analysis will show that she was
acting her part in the dramatic reproduction of
some incident in her life, the memory of which
was unconsciously active during the attack. The
same preponderance of active unconscious ideas
is revealed by analysis as the essential fact in the
psychology of all other forms of neurosis .
. The term unconscious. . designates
ideas with a certain dynamic character, ideas
keeping apart from consciousness in spite of their
intensity and activity.
266
Part Two Modern Europe
In the tradition of the Enlightenment
phi losophes, Freud valued reason and science, but he did not share lhe philosophes'
confidence in human goodness and humanity's capacity for future progress. In Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), Freud posited
the frightening theory that human beings are
driven by an inherent aggressiveness that
threatens civilized life-that civilization is
fighting a losing battle with our aggressive
instincts. Although Freud's pessimism was
no doubt influenced by the tragedy of World
War I, many ideas expressed in Civilization
and Its Discontents derived from views that
he had formulated decades earlier.
CIVILIZATION AND
ITS DISCONTENTS
The element of truth behind all this, which
people are so ready to disavow, is that men are
not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and
who at most can defend themselves if they are
attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures
among whose instinctual endowments is to be
reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness. As a
result, their neighbour is for them not only a
potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity for work
without compensation, to use him sexually
without his consent, to seize his possessions, to
humiliate him, to cause him pain, to torture and
to kill him. Homo homini lupus. [Man is wolf to
man.} Who, in the face of all his experience of
life and of history, will have the courage to dispute this assertion? As a rule this cruel aggressiveness waits for some provocation or puts itself
at the service of some other purpose, whose goal
might also have been reached by milder measures. In circumstances that are favourable to it,
when the mental counterforces which ordinarily
inhibit it are out of action, it also manifests itself spontaneously and reveals man as a savage
beast to whom consideration towards his own
kind is something alien. Anyone who calls to
mind the atrocities committed during the racial
migrations or the inva.sions of the Huns, or by the
people known as Mongols under Jenghiz Khan
and Tamerlane, or at the capture of JerLlsalem
by the pious Crusaders, or even, indeed, the horrors of the recent \World War-anyone who calls
these things to mind will have to bow humbly
before the truth of this view.
The existence of this inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly
assume to be present in others, is the facror
which disturbs Qur relations with our neighbour and which forces civilization into such a
high expenditure [of energy}. In consequence of
this primary mutual hostility of human beings,
civilized society is perpetually threatened with
disintegration. The interest of work in common
would not hold it together; instinctual passions
are stronger than reasonable interests. Civilization has to use its utmost efforts in order to set
limits to man's aggressive instincts and to hold
the manifestations of them in check by psychical reaction-formations. Hence, therefore, the
use of methods intended to incite people into
identifications and aim-inhibited relarionships
of love, hence the restriction upon sexual life,
and hence too the ideal's commandment ro
love one's neighbour as oneself-a comI?andment which is really justified by the fact that
nothing else runs so strongly counter to the
original nature of man. In spite of every effort,
these endeavours of civilization have not so far
achieved very much. It hopes to prevent the
crudest excesses of brutal violence by itself
assuming the right to use violence against
criminals, but the law is not able to lay hold
of the niore cautious and refined manifestations
of human aggressiveness. The time comes when
each one of us has to give up as illusions the
expectations which, in his youth, he pinned
upon his fellowmen, and when he may learn
how much difficulty and pain has been added
to his life by their ill-will. At the same time,
it would be unfair to reproach civilization with
trying to eliminate strife and competition from
human activity. These things are undoubtedly
indispensable. But opposition is not necessarily
enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion
for enmity.
1
the
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1.
2
3,
4.
5.
Chapter 10 lHodern ComciollsnesJ
J.ghiz Khan
f Jerusalem
'ed, the horne who calls
lOW humbly
1 to aggres:s and justly
s the factor
our neighinto such a
1sequence of
man beings,
atened with
:.incommo n
:ual passions
,ts. Civilizaorder to set
and to hold
k by psychilerefore, the
people into
~elationsh.ips
.1 sexual life,
andment to
a commandthe fact that
unter to the
. every effort,
lve not so far
prevent the
1ce by itself
:;oce against
e to lay hold
lanifestations
: comes when
illusions the
b, he pinned
::Ie may learn
s been added
e same time,
ilization with
petition from
undoubtedly
lot necessarily
ade an occasion
The communists believe that they have found
the path to deliverance from our evils. According to them, man is wholly good and is welldisposed to his neighbour; but the institution
of private property has corrupted his nature.
The ownership of private wealth gives the
individual power, and with it the temptation
to ill-treat his neighbour; while the man who is
excluded from possession is bound to rebel in
hostility against his oppressor. If private property
were abolished, all wealth held in common, and
everyone allowed to share in the enjoyment of
it, ill-will and hostility would disappear among
men. Since everyone's needs would be satisfied,
no one would have any reason to regard another
as his enemy; all would willingly undertake
the work that was necessary. I have no concern
with any economic criticisms of the communist
system.
. But 1 am able to recognize that the
psychological premises on which the system is
based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing
private property we deprive the human love of
aggression of one of its instruments, certainly a
strong one, though certainly not the strongest;
but we have in no way altered the differences
in power and influence which are misused by
aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in its
nature. Aggressiveness was not created by property.
It reigned almost withouT limit in primitive
times, when property was still very scanty, and
already shows itself in the nursery almost
before property has given up its primal, anal form;
it forms the basis of every relation of affection
and love among people (with the single exception, perhaps, of the mother's relation to her male
child). If we do away with personal rights over
material wealth, there still remains prerogative in
the field of sexual relationships, which is bound to
become the source of the strongest dislike and the
most violent hostility among men who in other
respects are on an equal footing. If we were to
remove this factor, too, by allowing complete
freedom of sexual life and thus abolishing the
family, the germ-cell of civilization, we cannot, it
is true, easily foresee what new paths the development of civilization could take; but one thing
we can expect, and that is that this indestructible
feature ofhwnan nature will follow it there,
It is clearly not easy for men to give up the
satisfaction of this inclination to aggression.
They do not feel comfortable without it.
If civilization imposes such great sacrifices
not only on man's sexuality but on his aggressivity, we can understand better why it is hard
for him to be happy in that civilization.
In all that follows I adopt the standpoint,
therefore, that the inclination to aggression is an
original, self-subsisting instinctual disposition in
man, and I retmn to my view that it constitutes
the greatest impediment to civilization,
It
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1, What was Sigmund Freud's definition of the unconscioJls? What examples of the
2.
3.
4.
5,
267
power of the unconscious did he provide?
Compare and contrast the approaches of Freud and Nietzsche to the nonrational.
What did Freud consider the "greatest impediment to civilization"? Why?
How did Freud react to the Marxist view that private property is the source of evil?
Compare Freud's view of human nature and reason to that of Enlightenment
philosophes.